In a perfect world, the selection for the new Pope, leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the supposed representative of Christ on Earth, would have a squeaky clean Mother Teresa-like reputation of humility, charity, teaching, and all around being a stand-up dude. Maybe that’s why some people are already crying foul about the selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. For starters, Bergoglio was considered a bit of a dark horse candidate in this thing from the beginning. Even the mainstream media has listed his selection as a “surprising” one. However, new information is surfacing rather quickly that shows that Pope Francis may have some secrets of his own.

Well, it just wouldn’t be the Catholic Church without a little scandal and controversy.

Flash back to 1976, decades before Bergoglio would be anointed with the highest office a Catholic priest can dream of. He was a big dog in the hierarchy of the Society of Jesus of Argentina back then, and already showing a penchant for being a mover and shaker on the religion’s scene. You don’t ascend to Pope overnight, and you make a lot of friends (and some enemies) along the way. Anyway, Bergoglio was in this position when a military junta came into power in Argentina. Two Jesuit priests were kidnapped that year. They disappeared off the face of the earth seemingly for about five months. It was heavily suspected that they were kidnapped by the naval segment of the military. The two men were Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics. They finally turned up drugged and partly naked in a field.

The men seemed to think that ‘ole Pope Francis had something to do with their debacle. They believed that Bergoglio basically handed them over to what amounted to a death squad in the political climate of Argentina at that time. What makes it worse is that the reasons the men were kidnapped was supposed to be of their good works, helping the poor in less fortunate communities. For unclear reasons, the military government had a problem with this. Bergoglio could have stood up for them, but instead, according to the kidnapped men, condemned their actions and distanced himself from them, giving them over to whatever punishment the military saw fit. Sounds like they were lucky to make it out alive.

Almost three decades later, a lawsuit was brought against Bergoglio in the matter, although it was not publicly disclosed exactly what they accused the future Pope of doing. He, of course, refused to testify publicly, was not forced to do so, and the lawsuit disappeared, the way things like this have a way of disappearing within the framework of the Catholic Church. Especially with heavy-hitter future Pope types.

For the record, there are two sides to the story. Bergoglio says that he went to extraordinary measures to work to have the men released, even going as far as to coming up with a secret plan to get the leader of the military junta alone to ask for mercy.

Without Bergoglio, the men surely would have been killed.

So, what do you think? Is Pope Francis a hero? A villain? Will we ever hear more about this story?

A lot of people will be chattering on conspiracy boards about this, in between accusing him of being an Illuminati henchman, a child molester, and the antichrist. The inconvenient truth is we probably know all we will ever know of this incident, and we are forced to take the information and make up our minds who we believe for ourselves.